Defence abuse may join Royal Commission

Reports of historic abuse on HMAS Leeuwin may be investigated by the current Royal Commission. Source: AAP

THE rape and sexual assault of hundreds of teenage boys while training at a West Australian naval base may become part of the current royal commission.

THE offences against 207 junior recruits at the HMAS Leeuwin training facility between 1960 and 1984 would fit the remit of the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Defence Abuse Response Taskforce chair Len Roberts-Smith said.

Mr Roberts-Smith described the abuse of the junior recruits, who were aged between 15 and 17, as horrific.Victims told of being scrubbed daily with sandsoap until their skin bled, being held down while boot polish was smeared onto their genitals, and having an object such as a mop handle forced into their anus.Mr Roberts-Smith, a former WA Supreme Court judge, said the few victims who overcame intimidation and threats to seek help were told to go away and be quiet, "in almost every instance".He said 63 per cent of the abuse at the naval base was perpetrated by other junior recruits and the remainder by staff.Victims' lives had been shattered by the offending, he said."Quite often they became alcoholics, they took to drugs, they had mental and psychological issues, they were angry constantly, and all of this reflected in their lives, which were devastated by the abuse that happened so long ago," Mr Roberts-Smith told ABC radio.Former Leeuwin recruit Graham, 61, said he wanted to kill the two men who raped him on the same night at Leeuwin."I've lived with that for 46 years. I still live with it. I have terror every day. I can't get it out of my mind. I hate nights. I can't sleep."I'm not a healthy man. I'm a complete mess mentally."I've never felt like a complete man."I'm sure the other victims are still suffering as I am today."He said it was comforting that his story had been accepted and to know the cases may be examined by a royal commission."I think the government needs to come clean with what I think was a cover-up for all this time," he said.Mr Roberts-Smith said the victims had great difficulty telling their stories, but were adamant they wanted them heard."They want people to know ... because they don't want it to happen again to anyone else," he said."These were children for whom Defence and the Navy had a special duty of care, standing in the place of their parents."We must learn the lessons of history."According to the report, the pattern of abuse at Leeuwin was such that Defence knew or ought to have known it was occurring, but failed to stop it.One in 10 of all abuse complaints the taskforce has received relate to Leeuwin.Defence Force chief General David Hurley and Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Ray Griggs said the incidents should not have occurred.Both said they were confident the abusive environment at Leeuwin didn't exist in the modern defence force, but the report would help Defence to continue working towards cultural change.

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